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Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Pendragon: #7 The Quillan Games

Moving onto the next journal in thePendragron saga is book #7 The Quillan Games. And the plot gets messed up.

Here is the summary:

Each new episode seems to raise the stakes of this action adventure series. In the seventh installment, Bobby Pendragon realizes that the Quillan Territory can be saved only by defeating game masters Veego and LaBerge in a fateful competition: Winning the Quillan Games could bring him a giant step closer to understanding the meaning of being a Traveler. Losing brings instant extinction.

In this one, Bobby Pendragon, the young hero of the series,travels to the territory of Quillan, a dark world with no emotion and is controlled by a company called BLOK. Bobby soon learns what the turning-point of this world may be, since he finds out that everyone on Quillan gambles on a series of sports and games called The Quillan Games. However the people of Quillan don't bet on the games with money....but with their own lives, and if they lose, they'll pay. Determined to stop the territory from colliding, Bobby ends up becoming one of the champions, under the control of two spectators named Veego and LaBarge, and competes in a series of deadly games and tasks, risking his life for the sake of all of Quillan and, even greater, all of Halla.

While Bobby is dealing with the insanity on Quillan, Mark and Courtney are trying to put their lives back together on Second Earth. Courtney is still recovering from her "accident" at the end of the sixth book, and Mark is spending a lot of time with Andy Mitchell, his ex-worst enemy. I don't want to say much more about the plot, other than, Saint Dane promises Bobby to reveal the "true nature" of the Travelers if he does......something for him. Like all the Pendragon books, the story is action-packed and very exciting. However, the book never becomes formulaic because of some unusual plot twists, and interesting, if slightly creepy, character development. The series has gotten much darker since the first book, but still has its funny moments.

The first 200 pages really dragged. I have never noticed that the author spent so much time describing every detail for us. Maybe it was excessive in this book. I thought at first it was maybe that there is so much backtracking in his books (why does he think that every book is being read by someone who has not read any of the other books of this series?) but it wasn't the backtracking. It was the endless descriptions of uninteresting aspects of Quillan. Saint Dane doesn't even begin to appear until mid-way through the book. Up till that point, I really didn't care what happened on Quillan. From then on, "Quillan" begins to shine as the other books have done so before it. The battle of wills between Boddy and Saint Dane really are the high points of the novels: will Bobby let himself be drawn in? Will Saint Dane gain a point against him? What is the plan for this territory?

Now I can't say much because this series is actually meant for the adolescent age-group and not for me and doesn't even appeal to me but my complain - the lack of background information - the major flaw this series suffers from - Mr. Machale, don't you think that by the 7th book it is time to start resolving some of the conflicts your previous books have introduced? Well, I do. And I can't help but think that a lot of other fans out there feel the same way, even though the reviews here are overly glowing. I'll admit that the book is action packed. This is no doubt responsible for the great reviews, especially from your biggest audience the adolescent. Still, at some point even the youngest fan is going to want to know the answers to their questions about travelers. How are they selected? Where are they really from? What happens to their parents? What does it really mean to be a traveler? This book promised to provide some of those long awaited for answers. What it gave is one statement from Saint Dane that travelers are an illusion. Gee, no kidding! I think we understood that about six books ago.

All of McHale's books have basically the same storyline with Saint Daine, the monstrous Travelor determined on destroying Bobby, appearing and attempting to destroy a Territory. Each and every time Bobby manages to foil him. Tip for the writer.. it's getting a little boring. The only inspiration I have to keep reading this series is the desire to find out how Bobby manages to survive this time. I don't know how McHale is going to keep up the suspense for another maybe 3 books. Let's wait an see shall we?

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